Emergent Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers - ECEZero2Three ...
Emergent Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers - ECEZero2Three ...
Emergent Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers - ECEZero2Three ...
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© Dena Bawinkel<br />
We wanted all the<br />
children to know that<br />
there could be a positive<br />
aspect to whatever<br />
they might bring to the<br />
classroom.<br />
To help her learn appropriate touching, I suggested ways of touching other<br />
children that wouldn’t hurt. I’d say, <strong>for</strong> example, “Should we ask Josh if you can<br />
touch his arm?” If Josh said yes, she would touch his arm gently. Then I would<br />
perhaps suggest, “Let’s ask him if you can touch his hair.”<br />
We also worked with the child on being able to predict how another child<br />
might react to a pinch rather than a gentle touch. I’d say something like, “I<br />
remember yesterday you pinched Josh, <strong>and</strong> he screamed. Remember how he<br />
screamed? I also remember when you touched his arm gently, <strong>and</strong> he smiled.<br />
Let’s try touching him gently again.” I even tied a discussion of pinching into<br />
circle time. Using two dolls as props, I told a story about how one of the dolls<br />
had pinched the other. We then discussed ways the dolls could learn to interact<br />
with each other.<br />
To address the child’s second set of questions—about what she can do with<br />
her thumb <strong>and</strong> her index finger—we not only offered traditional pinching materials<br />
like playdough but also introduced something we called “pinching socks.”<br />
We strung a piece of twine along a wall at child’s-eye level <strong>and</strong> tied on a number<br />
of socks filled with various materials (s<strong>and</strong>, crinkly paper, cotton balls, pebbles,<br />
<strong>and</strong> marbles). We called them pinching socks because we wanted to lessen the<br />
child’s feeling bad about her need to pinch. We wanted all the children to know<br />
that there could be a positive aspect to whatever they might bring to the classroom.<br />
The children really loved the pinching socks <strong>and</strong> would repeatedly pinch<br />
them, feeling the different textures <strong>and</strong> hearing the different sounds they made.<br />
I hope the children learned that together we can figure out behaviors.<br />
Hopefully this child feels that we honored her needs. We saw her interest in<br />
getting to know the other children, <strong>and</strong> we helped her learn some skills she<br />
could use to develop friendships. We also gave her opportunities to pinch in<br />
ways that wouldn’t hurt others.<br />
Exploring holes safely<br />
Bonnie Aldridge, Master Teacher<br />
We had planted pumpkins in our schoolyard, <strong>and</strong> one<br />
morning we discovered a gopher hole in the pumpkin patch.<br />
We talked about who lived in the hole, <strong>and</strong> one boy stuck his<br />
h<strong>and</strong> in the hole. I told him I wasn’t com<strong>for</strong>table with that<br />
because a gopher might bite him. He addressed the danger<br />
on his own by finding a wooden spoon <strong>and</strong> sticking the<br />
h<strong>and</strong>le of the spoon down the hole. I started to wonder if the<br />
gopher might be irritated by the intrusion, so I asked the<br />
child if he would be interested in walking around the yard<br />
with me to see how many other holes we could find. We had<br />
a marvelous time looking <strong>for</strong> holes.<br />
The boy found many other kinds of holes that interested<br />
him. In the s<strong>and</strong>box, he put his spoon h<strong>and</strong>le into plastic<br />
cups, jiggling it around <strong>and</strong> hitting the bottom <strong>and</strong> sides of<br />
the cup. Some other children had popped the faucet off a<br />
plastic sink in the s<strong>and</strong>box, <strong>and</strong> he discovered that hole. He<br />
stuck his spoon h<strong>and</strong>le inside <strong>and</strong> tapped against the sides,<br />
but this time no matter how far he lowered the spoon, he<br />
could not feel the bottom. He discovered a vent into another<br />
room <strong>and</strong> found that if he played with the angle of the<br />
spoon, he could push it into the vent further. He w<strong>and</strong>ered<br />
over to a door <strong>and</strong> tried to see if the h<strong>and</strong>le of the spoon<br />
would fit inside the lock. He pushed, changed angles, <strong>and</strong><br />
Beyond the Journal • Young Children on the Web • July 2006 3